The present invention relates to a natural language labeling system for video and photographic images.
Video recorders, and in particular handheld portable camcorders, typically include buttons that permit the user to enter a text label which is overlaid on a small portion of the video images on a tape as the video images are obtained. To enter the desired text, the user scrolls through the alphabet in a letter-by-letter process until the desired letter appears. When the desired letter appears it may be selected so that it becomes a part of the text label. This letter by letter process is repeated until the desired text label is completely entered. Unfortunately, this process is time consuming and therefore infrequently done by users. Because camcorders are small so as to be handheld, they are not suitable for an additional alpha-numeric keypad from which to enter text. However, it is desirable to label individual video clips to assist a user's recollection of the taped event. Also, over time the user may accumulate hundreds of video tapes, with each video tape including hundreds of different video clips. Without accurately labeling the exterior label of a video tape with an indication of all the video clips contained therein, locating the desired video clip among many tapes becomes a nightmarish task. This task is even more difficult for somebody who has not previously viewed the video clip or the video tape.
Photographic items such as photos, slides, and digital image files have other problems. For example, individuals may take hundreds to thousands of photographic pictures (prints or transparencies) every year. Ideally every good picture is stored in a photo album together with its negative, or a slide tray or cassette in the case of transparencies. However, organizing photos in a photo album requires considerable effort and most often individuals merely look at the pictures once or twice and then place them in a box with other pictures. Over time negatives tend to become separated from their respective pictures making it difficult to obtain a duplicate print of a desired picture because the negative cannot be located. In addition, if each picture is not manually labeled with a label relating to its subject, then over time the photographer may not be able to recall the subject matter of the picture, the people shown in the picture, and the date that the picture was taken. There are similar problems relating to locating and identifying slides.
Several film developing services now scan negatives (or positives) to create a digital photographic image file of each picture. The digital photographic image file is then provided to the customer either on storage media such as a diskette or over a network such as the internet. Similar labeling, identification, locating, and storing problems exist with digital photographic image files, as with traditional photographic pictures and slides.
Fujisawa et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,408 disclose a knowledge based information retrieval system suitable to query existing databases for desired information. The natural language portion of the retrieval system permits users to enter an English sentence query, as opposed to cryptic database syntax query, to search for desired information within the database. The natural language interface is intuitive for the user and alleviates the need for the user to learn the cryptic database query syntax, thus making the system faster to learn. Such systems are generally referred to as natural language query systems.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for efficiently labeling video and photographic images that is suitable for portable handheld devices. Also, the system should permit the efficient categorization and retrieval of video clips and photographic images.